Judge blocks requirement that doctors have hospital admitting privileges, but fight not yet over

Impassioned crowds from both sides of the abortion debate gathered in the Capitol rotunda in July as lawmakers debated the controversial bill that became law, a key provision of which was struck down Monday.

Photo By Helen L. Montoya/Staff

Marrah Moreland and Adam Olmos were among the abortion protesters gathered Monday outside Planned Parenthood in San Antonio after the ruling.

Photo By RON T. ENNIS/STF

State Senator Wendy Davis speaks with reporters after voting at the Southside Community Center in east Fort Worth, Texas on Monday, October 18, 2013. (Star-Telegram/Ron T. Ennis)

Photo By Mayra Beltran/Staff

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott during the Republican National Committee press conference to announce its grassroots team who will strengthen ties with Hispanic Republicans on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013, in Houston. ( Mayra Beltran / Houston Chronicle )

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AUSTIN - A federal judge on Monday struck down a key provision of Texas' controversial new abortion law and partially blocked another component, but the state's top Republicans said the fight is far from over.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel's decision to block the state from enforcing a requirement that abortion-providing doctors obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals came one day before the regulation was set to take effect. Abortion-rights groups had argued that, if enacted, the measure would cause a third of the state's abortion clinics to close.

In his ruling, Yeakel said the admitting privileges requirement is unconstitutional because it poses an undue burden on women seeking an abortion and has no "rational relationship to improved patient care."

In the second part of his ruling, Yeakel stopped short of granting abortion-rights groups a complete victory. He upheld and only partially blocked new restrictions on pregnancy-ending drugs.

Yeakel made clear that a regulation requiring doctors to use a Food and Drug Administration protocol for medication-induced abortions did "not fail constitutional review because of the lack of a specific health-of-the-mother exception." However, he said it does place an "undue burden on women" and cannot be enforced against a doctor using an off-label protocol "for the preservation of the life or health of the mother."

New regulations for abortion-inducing drugs went into effect at midnight Monday, except in cases in which women have medical conditions that can make surgical abortion "extremely difficult or impossible," according to the ruling.

Averting a 'crisis'

Abortion-rights groups hailed the court's ruling as averting a "catastrophic health crisis for women across the state of Texas."

"Politicians, not doctors, pushed for both of these unconstitutional restrictions - despite the best medical standards for women's health care," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, one of three groups that sued to challenge the law.

About an hour after the ruling, Attorney General Greg Abbott filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In separate rulings last year, the 5th Circuit decided that Texas could cut off state funding for Planned Parenthood clinics and that the state could require a pre-abortion sonogram.

"As everyone - including the trial court judge - has acknowledged, this is a matter that will ultimately be resolved by the appellate courts or the U.S. Supreme Court," said Abbott spokeswoman Lauren Bean.

Gov. Rick Perry, in a statement Monday, said the court's ruling "will not stop our ongoing efforts to protect life and ensure the women of our state aren't exposed to any more of the abortion-mill horror stories that have made headlines recently."

Sen. Wendy Davis, the Fort Worth Democrat running for governor who was propelled into the national spotlight with a nearly 13-hour abortion filibuster over the summer, said she was not surprised by Monday's court decision.

"As a mother, I would rather see our tax dollars spent on improving our kid's schools rather than defending this law," she said in a statement.

A Texas Right to Life official said the organization was not surprised at Yeakel's ruling, given his previous judgment that it was unconstitutional to exclude abortion affiliates in the Texas Women's Health Program. She said the organization looks forward to how the matter plays out in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which overturned Yeakel's judgment on the Women's Health Program law and ruled in favor of Texas' law requiring women seeking an abortion to have a sonogram.

"We' re ready for the next round," said Emily Horne, a legislative associate with Texas Right to Life.

Time an issue

Monday's ruling stems from a lawsuit filed last month by Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union. Last week, Yeakel heard three days of testimony and arguments in Austin. Abortion-rights groups testified that requiring doctors to get admitting privileges in a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic would force 13 of the state's abortion clinics to close Tuesday.

Abortion-rights advocates also testified that the law did not give them enough time to respond since hospitals have 170 days to answer an application for privileges but the law was scheduled to go into effect 90 days after a special legislative session ended in July.

On that point, Yeakel took a shot at the Republican-led Legislature, saying the court concluded that lawmakers "never intended for a physician to be allowed a reasonable time to obtain admitting privileges."

Federal judges in five states - Wisconsin, Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota and now Texas - have blocked similar laws.

"That should send a message to politicians around the country to stop trying to prevent women from accessing the care they need for their families, and these courts have found these type of restrictions do not further patient safety," said Brigitte Amiri, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU, one of three main plaintiffs.

The two measures passed in July amid massive protests at the state Capitol. The law also allows abortions only in surgical centers and bans the procedure after 20 weeks. The 20-week ban on abortion went into effect at midnight Monday, while the surgical center requirement does not take effect until Sept. 1, 2014. It is expected to be challenged in court.